Well, I've done it again.
Somehow since we got our Facebook account, I have found it
easier to post quick tidbits on there instead of adding posts here. These pictures are mixed up, but for some reason I can't figure out how to get them in the right order. Anyway, there are pictures of all of the October and November birthdays here.
We are most of the way through "birthday season" here. Emily turned 7 and Abigail turned 10 in October. Laura, Heidi and Garrett turned 12, 5 and 1 respectively in November. Charlotte will have her 9th birthday in December and then Todd hits the big 40 in January. Then we wait until May for Lincoln's and my birthdays. We enjoy lots of birthday goodies at this time of year :) It is so hard to believe that a year has gone by since little Garrett was born. He has been such an added joy to our family. He has a great sense of humor for such a little guy. His new game is to run away laughing when I go to pick him up - but then he usually turns around and runs back towards me with his arms held high (just melts my heart). In case you can't tell, we are so so happy with all of our kids! One of his recent cute moments happened a few weeks ago - I was trying to rock him to sleep for a nap, and he wasn't wanting to settle down. Finally he sat straight up in my lap and yelled as loud as he could "LAURA", "LAURA". He has learned that when he wants his way, surely one of his sisters will let him have it :) - Not a good thing, but pretty cute right now.
We had an unseasonably cold October - but November has been milder. Today was a gorgeous, sunny day. The kids played outside with our newest batch of kittens for a while - Just as Lincoln is outgrowing the stage of torturing kittens by hanging them upside down by their tails or picking them up by their ears, Garrett has grown into it - poor kitties!
Heidi has turned 5 now, and is really loving to learn. She has started reading a little bit and it's fun to have her bring things to us and sound the new words out. I just love the part of teaching them to read when it finally clicks and they take off.
Emily has just discovered that she is ready for the Boxcar Children series of books. The other girls are just as excited as she is - asking her which part of the book she is reading - talking about the things that are happening... I looked over this evening and she was engrossed in her book and Laura and Abigail were hanging over her shoulders reading with her. :) So now we have 4 bookworms in the house. Her bigger sisters have been teaching her how to ride a bike without training wheels, which has been very exciting for her. Charlotte graduated to a bigger bike and handed her bike down to Emily and Emily handed her bike down to Heidi - so they are all happy. Heidi has been having fun riding round and round our porch (which really isn't very big - so she has gotten very good at turning :) - the other day she ran into the house yelling "mommy, mommy I just rode around the porch ONE HANDED - it was very hard")
The "critters" are all doing great. We moved the cows over across a stream crossing to our biggest pasture a couple of weeks ago. It is a great motivator for us to get a little exercise in when we go check on them every day or so. We have 12 cows/heifers, 1 little steer and 2 bulls now. 3 of the heifers are Jerseys - they are unbelievably friendly. They come up for hugs and treats (mostly treats) and then follow us around the pasture like puppy dogs. We are really enjoying them. We're not sure what we will do when they calve - if we will milk them or take them up to Arthur for a while and let someone up there milk them. We should start getting some calves in the next couple of months - right in the middle of the winter :P
Well, this is a long post, so I had better go. Maybe I will do better about posting next time --- we'll see.
